Hagley Digital Archives

The Hagley Digital Archives provides online access to selected items from the Hagley Library's collection of images, documents, and publications related to the history of business, technology, and society.

Raw cotton, due to the presence of natural waxes and fats, is quite resistant to wetting by ordinary water, but the addition of a small amount of certain chemicals, known as wetting agents, causes the cotton to become wet rapidly. Wetting agents are accordingly used to speed up various textile operations which involve wetting-such as souring cleaning and dyeing.

In the Process Development Building of the Jackson Lab, there are small scale replicas of many types of equipment used for a wide variety of chemicals and chemical products. They are used by DuPont to prove the practicability of laboratory developed processes before full scale plant equipment is built.

This is a knock testing engine being used by DuPont for fundamental combustion research. Since its beginning in 1927, DuPont's fundamental research program has proved helpful in laying the foundation for applied research along many lines. In this research program, the Petroleum Laboratory at Deepwater Point, New Jersey is studying the effect of various fundamentals of fuel behavior.

Modern American dye industry was born in this handful of buildings at Deepwater, New Jersey on July 17, 1917 when DuPont processed its first successful charge of sulfur black. Acute shortage of dyes during World War I precipitated the company's entry into the field. Until then, less than 10% of the dyes consumed in the United Sates were made here. So complete was the dependency on European imports that even postage stamps and currency were colored with German dyes. Originally know as the Dye Works, the Deepwater plant was renamed Chambers Works in 1944 in honor of Dr. Arthur D. Chambers, who pioneered its early development.

This test for determining the amount of tetraethyl lead in gasoline is only one of many tests run regularly by DuPont as part of its research to solve fuel and lubricant problems at the Petroleum Laboratory, Deepwater Point, New Jersey. Results of research are far reaching. Every improvement in quality means that purchasers receive a better product.

Elaborate control panels on small scale units yield basic research data for the chemist. This panel is used for experimental work in DuPont's Jackson Laboratory at Deepwater Point, New Jersey. In this laboratory the DuPont Company conducts research on dyes and dye intermediates; neoprene and other elastomers; textile, leather paper, runner and petroleum chemicals; camphor and fluorinated and miscellaneous organic products.

Fundamental chemical research is important in the development of petroleum additives. This complicated looking apparatus is used by DuPont in its laboratories at Deepwater Point, New Jersey for studying rates of organic chemical reactions. DuPont research, founded only 15 years later than our national government, has played a significant part in the country's industrial progress.

Elaborate control panels on small scale units yield basic research data for the chemist. This panel is used for experimental work in DuPont's Jackson Laboratory at Deepwater Point, New Jersey. In this laboratory the DuPont Company conducts research on dyes and dye intermediates; neoprene and other elastomers; textile leather, paper, rubber, and petroleum chemicals; camphor and fluorinated and miscellaneous organic products.